20% 0ff HDTracks UK

It was HDTracks dot com, which I access with a Chrome Proxy plugin. The dot com site has now slid back to a more normal 15% store wide promotion. It's nice that the UK site is doing offers. They can afford to at those prices.

I'm a bit miffed with HDT.uk pricing,  begs the retort that they can afford to give 20% "sale prices" 24/7,  seriously maybe they ought to anyhow if they want to stay in business in UK. 

e.g.  PF's "The Endless River" DeLuxe 96/24

HDT full price = £24.50

HDT -20%   = £20.41

Qubuz        = £19.64

HighResAudio   = £19.00

When then compared to the US pricing which regularly gives 10-15% discounts almost constantly, it gets even worse :

Endless River 96/24 $22.98 full price = £14.77

20% off each            $19.15                = £12.30

Thats too much of a difference to not pursue the downloads in the US. Gone Girl soundtrack was available through NIN website at the $ pricing and purchased here in the UK via PP with a simple conversion through their app, why can't it all be done the same way?????

i think a bit miffed is understating it Mike. Utter rip off is closer to the truth.

i know it's a different genre but eClassical have been running an 'advent' promotion where I have been able to buy a full set of Beethoven Piano Concertos by Ronald Brautigam on Bis 24 FLAC for $5.63 each CD or c£3.50 at current exchange rates.

Makes HDTracks look somewhat sad. Moreover I always find Qobuz cheaper particularly if you register on the French site.

£18 for Hidef, when you can buy the CD for £5? Someone is having a laugh. The Hidef will be better, but not that much better. The only way to combat these silly prices, especially for things you often have already, is just not to buy them.

I did not want to over complicate the pricing issue with outside UK/Europe pricing

The only way we can get into HDT (USA) is with an IP hider 

Oh,  nearly forgot,  despite the transatlantic time zone changes,  my Endless River did not suffer any jet lag.  

Fair enough but it does highlight the pricing difference as cost to the purchaser which is why such long discussions are had on the IP masking route to HDT, it wouldn't matter if the UK pricing was the same, I would imagine M'Lord :-)

And they will lift an IP block on request because the regional restrictions are little more than price fixing like DVD Regional codes. If it was illegal, Qobuz wouldn't do it. HDT dot com with a voucher is often the cheapest and between them and Qobuz, I've got my needs covered.

They have been sending me emails off and on for weeks with 20% off. Still over priced in my view

Yes the U.S. site is just about competitive with special offers, which is what makes the UK site even more annoying.

Yeah £18 seems a bit steep. Great album, of course, but it seems like they're having a bit of a laugh.

We’re kind of dammed either way. If sites like HDTrabks UK don’t attract a healthy volume of usage the record industry will publish data which either proves that there is no interest/market/future in the UK or that we’re obviously obtaining music “illegally” and something must be done to stop us. Been there, got the T shirt. Different language, same moves as ever.

The universal translation down the years which still applies today is: "We can't rip you off enough and it's all your fault that we are not rich beyond a thousand times our wildest dreams". 

I agree Mike, it's a rip off! However, remember the first CDs, when they came out in the 80's. Damned expensive!! We can only hope that with more streaming companies entering the arena, prices will come down.

BOTW...Breathtaking in 192/24! (Probably having those new Ethernets helped! )

HH...Yea, it's a rip off for that money, and I'm probably not helping matters by buying it. I have dowloaded some Hi-Res albums, and to be honest, I thought the CD was better! I have the CD version of Hotel California, and the 96/24 version. The 96/24 version blows the CD out of the water, as does the 192/24 version of BOTW......I'm sure my new Cinnamon may have something to do with it though!

I have the 192/24  & I also had the CD rip running alongside - both in .wav - both on the same ethernets - still the same answer,  blows the CD away !!!    But it is a remaster, so its not a 1-1 compare.  Bought from HDT (USA)       

I bought the latest Steve Reich album from Nonesuch in the US and it was very reasonably priced - about £8 I think, and there were no silly regional restrictions. And that's for a brand new album. On the other hand, £18 for the S&G, or Hotel California, is just cynical. I suppose that if it's one of your favourite albums you'd buy it. I imagine a lot of this stuff is bought by middle aged blokes with plenty of money, who will pay ripoff prices to own something they own already, whereas new material, like the Reich, needs to be competitively priced in order to sell in the first place.

Now this really shows them up. Not HiRes but CD 16/44 quality on Qobuz UK.

The Oiseau-Lyre Florilegium Baroque Era 50 CD box set released earlier this year is available in two downloads for a total of less than £18. A fantastic bargain when the box set on Amazon is currently close to £110.

I am just downloading now.

100% HH,  I was caught with a "hi-res" that turned out to be no better than CD,  so now I do some home work before purchasing anything these days. 

But from the other side,  I consider the "Hotel California" remaster (2013) of a favourite album (1976) that I first checked had very positive critical reviews to be worth the £14 I paid from HDT (USA)

Ditto the 192/24 Forcione/Sabina "MMIL" - another remaster - ditto Norah Jones "Come Away With Me"  & a significant number of others - but all remasters.  

& NO !!!  I'm not middle aged, just a really old an' crusty,  & shedloads of the stuff. 

Was HH referring to me then? Middle aged? Chance would be a fine thing!

Hi Camlan, thanks for the tip, a truly tremendous bargain - I've just bought and downloaded the ZIP file from Qobuz for vols 1 & 2  but can't open them.  What program did you use - I'm using a Windows 7 PC;  I've tried Winzip, but that can't extract the individual files either.

I used the Qobuz downloader but you must download them separately, doesn't like it if you try and download together.

Don't try WAV either, you'll be there all day.

Thanks Camlan, I've found and opened the downloader, which only seems to give instructions in French, and I can't see a way of using it to identify and find my purchases.  I've emailed Qobuz. Can't understand the difficulty as I've bought and successfully downloaded an album with multiple tracks previously.  Do you mean you downloaded each track individually?  Must have taken ages if so!  Perhaps I'm missing something here....

Or get them overnight, as I did this time last year when Qobuz sold be all of Beethoven's Symphonies for 9.99. Their special offers sure are worth looking out for.

If you have got the downloader, if you just press download my music (telecharegr in French) then all the music will appear and it will start (or should do) and yes it is track by track so go and get a cup of coffee, or similar.

I'm just working on the metadata - don't ask!

I will fess up to buying the MMIL 192/24 for the silly price of £18, because it is a favourite of mine, and is in reality a new recording of the album. I'll also fess up to being a middle aged man, so was referring to myself and others in a similar position. But I still think £18 is a crazy price, but if people will pay, the companies will charge.